diff --git a/test/e2e/helper_test.go b/test/e2e/helper_test.go
index 82770323a..f869224c9 100644
--- a/test/e2e/helper_test.go
+++ b/test/e2e/helper_test.go
@@ -65,6 +65,10 @@ const (
 	envKubernetes = "HELM_E2E_KUBERNETES"
 	// envNamespace is the namespace the Kubernetes tests install into.
 	envNamespace = "HELM_E2E_NAMESPACE"
+	// envHelmKubeContext is helm's own kubecontext variable. The tests do not
+	// set it, but helm subprocesses inherit it, so cleanup performed through
+	// the Kubernetes API has to honor it too.
+	envHelmKubeContext = "HELM_KUBECONTEXT"
 )
 
 // harness carries the resolved configuration shared by the end-to-end tests.
diff --git a/test/e2e/oci_test.go b/test/e2e/oci_test.go
index afd0e7daf..1a841f8cb 100644
--- a/test/e2e/oci_test.go
+++ b/test/e2e/oci_test.go
@@ -370,9 +370,20 @@ func archiveFiles(t *testing.T, path string) map[string][]byte {
 func deleteNamespace(t *testing.T, namespace string) {
 	t.Helper()
 
+	// Select the same context the helm subprocesses used. They inherit
+	// HELM_KUBECONTEXT from the environment, so without this override the
+	// releases would be installed into one cluster while the namespace was
+	// deleted from whichever cluster the kubeconfig's current-context names.
+	// A delete against the wrong cluster returns NotFound, which would look
+	// like success while leaking the namespace.
+	overrides := &clientcmd.ConfigOverrides{}
+	if kubeContext := os.Getenv(envHelmKubeContext); kubeContext != "" {
+		overrides.CurrentContext = kubeContext
+	}
+
 	cfg, err := clientcmd.NewNonInteractiveDeferredLoadingClientConfig(
 		clientcmd.NewDefaultClientConfigLoadingRules(),
-		&clientcmd.ConfigOverrides{},
+		overrides,
 	).ClientConfig()
 	if err != nil {
 		t.Errorf("building kube client config to delete namespace %s: %v", namespace, err)